Appropriately, this is my first-ever question for Y. A.... and (I just realized) I should add it has nothing to do with my name. :-)
I keep seeing people do this?
Or saying, "tell me what you think about so and so?"
Or, "I need your opinion?"
I'm tempted to answer, "I don't know, *do* you need my opinion?"
A ? isn't mandated on every sentence just because you are seeking information. Its purpose is to show when a sentence is a question.
Like other rules of grammar, it's to clarify your message! Don't even get me started on other common mis-use online, such as capitalization, and periods where ?'s SHOULD be used.
As an example, "I was wondering what you think about this..." is not a question. It is a statement, telling us you were wondering. A ? is therefore not the right punctuation mark; a period is.
I'm not an English teacher or student, but I have a strong urge to smack each of you on the back of the hand with a ruler.
Grammar police! There's a riot on Yahoo! Answers!
2006-06-16 05:40:53 · 7 answers · asked by Question Mark 4 in Education & Reference ➔ Other - Education
Before anyone else "corrects" me, I'm talking about in the body of the text, not at the top. Yahoo certainly does *not* add question marks to your sentences down here.
2006-06-16 05:53:16 · update #1
To "latina" -- People use question marks because they are bored?! Wow, I never realized that extra key hit brought such excitement! I must try it...
????????????????
Hmmph. Didn't do a thing for me. Hahaha....So far I choose yours as the DUMBEST answer.
2006-06-17 17:57:19 · update #2
At first I was frustrated that everyone seemed to be missing my point. But in retrospect, I could have been clearer with my question.
I have seen this before in other places, such as e-mails and forums long before finding this site... and that's what I was talking about.
But I can also see now that I *was* unconsciously "panicked" by all the examples I found here, which had me prematurely hitting the riot button. :-) I was confused partly by the fact that some questions here *don't* end with a '?', as G.O. correctly said, leading me to believe it *wasn't* automatic, as several of you told me. But if it's a bug with certain questions, ok.
Good...I'm relieved to be wrong!
But although it's lessened, my peeve about this remains, even on this site; you'll notice there are topic statements here ending with *multiple* question marks, which means users *are* putting some of them there -- inappropriately.
It's largely my fault that I didn't get very relevant responses.
2006-06-28 20:10:54 · update #3
Yahoo puts a "?" in automatically for every question whether it is a question or a statement. However, there is a bug that doesn't put it in when you type a certain number of characters. I found these random ones as rare examples:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApvN_7.MQ6QIECh9t_55g3vzy6IX?qid=20060616112837AAIhpZH
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AmwE9dp_uFTZVbCLvGxbg4MjzKIX?qid=1006051219439
2006-06-16 05:43:27 · answer #1 · answered by G.O. 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Yahoo automatically adds the question mark.
2006-06-16 05:43:53 · answer #2 · answered by POOF 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yahoo puts the "?" at the end of the first line.
2006-06-16 05:43:38 · answer #3 · answered by butterfliesRfree 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is a question right? See i put nothing after that sentence and isn't there something?
2006-06-16 05:48:04 · answer #4 · answered by PistonMan! 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They put question marks when they want to express confusion. Like if I didn't get this question I would say: ??????. Or maybe HELP I DON"T GET THIS??!?!?!
2006-06-16 05:44:42 · answer #5 · answered by ? 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it is not a big issue but may be they have less knowledge about grammar
2006-06-16 05:43:53 · answer #6 · answered by ur soulmate 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
because people are bored maybe just like you!
2006-06-16 05:45:59 · answer #7 · answered by latina 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋